Author:

Jean-Baptiste Jung

Category:

There are legions of stock images websites on the web. Some are paid stock images, some are free but boring (You have to register, etc) and some are 100% free. You just have to go to the website, select a few images, and download it. That’s simple as that.

In my opinion, that’s how all free stock images websites should be. As an example of this, let’s talk about a website I recently discover, named FreePixels.com.

Freepixels is very simple to use: Just go on their site and search for stock images. If you don’t need to find something specific, you can also browse the site to see what images can be used in your designs.
All freepixels.com images are categorized, which makes things a lot easier when you have to browse. I browsed a few categories while writing this post, and I must admit that I spent a long time on the site, browsing, watching images, thinking about how I can use them…

That’s a good point, but now we must talk about the licence. Licencing is a common problem to every creative person: “Can I use this icon? “Is that image CC licenced?” I have heard theses questions a lot of time. Even worse, on one of my first PsdVibe tutorials, I had to remove an icon I’ve used from the tutorial and all screenshots because the icon’s licence didn’t allowed me to do that.
On FreePixels, you don(t have to worry: All images from the site can be used both personally and profesionnally. That means, you can use them to illustrate blog posts, but you can also feature some of their image on a client’s website.

Of course, and particulary in the case of a website dedicated to stock images, an image is worth a thousand words. This is why I thought I can’t finnish this article without featuring some of my favorite stock photography from Freepixels. Just click on an image to download it.

Michael

Hey Jean, thanks for introducing freepixels; it seems like a great and easy to use site, and the images that you have listed here are really nice. The free resources offered there would definitely prove helpful in the process of website designing.

Solange

Hey, thanks for sharing!
As a beginner I have one more question: on freepixels.com its said: “Every Freepixels image or digital creation used must retain the domain name: freepixels.com when used on the internet, in a web page, in printed publications, or in any product, advertising, or packaging. This credit, however, may be cropped out or digitally removed from the photograph if it is included in readable type near each photograph, group of photographs, in the text, or in the credits.”

So how do I include the domain name if i do a backgroundcollage out of more fotos??? Where do I have to put the credits???

Yes, budgets do come into play occasionally requireing quality stock images. But, that is never a reason to use “free images.” The license with freepixels requires the domain to be listed, that will change to requiring a link back. That is not free and is never good for a client’s professional look.

I spent quite a lot of time on the site too and down’ed some interesting pics. These are indeed quite usable since the copyright text is nowhere hindering like I have seen with some other free pics before. Good article, it’s a site to bookmark for later reference!